The present disclosure relates to the detection of mycoplasmas, and more particularly to the utilization of Raman Spectroscopy to distinguish and/or otherwise identify unmycoplasma contaminated cells from mycoplasma contaminated cells in biotechnology production.
Numerous modern bioprocess manufacturing applications utilize cell culture systems. For example, in a conventional bioprocess, a cell culture may be used to catalyze biochemical reactions within microorganisms to generate cellular components thereof. After a series of reactions that are contained in a controlled environment, the cell culture chemically changes reactants into end products.
Unfortunately, mycoplasma contamination of cell culture systems is detrimental to such bioprocess manufacturing applications. Mycoplasmas lack a cell wall. Instead, mycoplasma rely upon hosts to maintain their plasma membrane. In this regard, mycoplasmas bind with cell walls of their hosts to obtain nutrients. As such, mycoplasma is extremely small and difficult to detect and filter. Moreover, mycoplasma can cause unexpected deviations in the host cell, e.g., in cell growth, metabolism, function, synthesis, etc. As a result, the cell culture may become contaminated, thus skewing the manufacturing of products from the cell culture and likely destroying the utility of the cell culture.